Snow on the mountain!

Week of December 1 through December 5

This week was a week of adjustments. Mr. Bill began teaching the third, fifth and sixth grade classes at the school. Jerry & Miss Dawn began taking on extra chores to maintain the school. Some transitions went well, others didn’t go quite so smoothly. I really don’t feel the need to say anything other than we all had a week of adjustments. We all came through it and I think it has drawn us all closer together as a team, as difficult times often do.

Friday, December 5th

We said farewell to our friends Anne and Jim today. They are “snow birding” down to Phoenix for the winter. They stopped by at lunch time today and Ms. Anne took one more opportunity to provide us with her wonderful cookies! Thank you Ms. Anne and Mr. Jim, we will miss you all this winter! Oh, and speaking of winter, I have to tell the reason for the title. Anyone who has visited here probably remembers the view of the mountain peaks at Flagstaff. It is beautiful, especially set against the western sunset. Now, it is snow-covered! If possible, it looks even more majestic.

Saturday, December 6th

This Saturday dawned bright and early! Miss Dawn had organized and scheduled a “Craft Fair” at the church for today from 9AM to noon. All the parents and school children were invited, along with people from the church. We had several kids from school attend! It was so much fun! I cannot stress how much I enjoyed the crafts and the children. We all made Christmas Tree ornaments and Christmas decorations. There were ten craft projects to choose from and I know several children were able to complete them all. We had Christmas tree shaped ornaments, snow flake shaped ornaments, Christmas wreath shaped decorations, three different kinds of candy cane decorations to make. We served cookies and hot chocolate for a snack. Jerry hooked up some Christmas music to play in the background. One of the music selections was “Blue Christmas” by Elvis Presley, played in honor of both Miss Springer and Nana (Jerry’s Mom, Norma). They are both really like Elvis!

Kelcy’s favorite craft was making the candy canes out of red and white pom-poms. She made four of these, because she loved it so much. I think she enjoyed it so much because she could do it all by herself. Abby’s favorite craft was the “Snow” picture she made with a snow man and a penguin. She completed two of these projects.

While we were making crafts, Jerry and Mr. Bill were filling bags with Christmas goodies for the church folks. Miss Springer had acquired the supplies and the boys began filling the bags with oranges, apples, nuts and hard candy. Miss Springer says that that is the traditional Navajo stocking stuffers.

Sunday, December 7th

The service at Red Sands Christian Church went very well today! I had eight kids in my Sunday School class. We read about Christ’s birth in Luke. Next, we discussed what Paul says about why Jesus had to be born and to come to earth. It went well. Next, Mr. Bill brought a great lesson about “the indescribable gift” from 2nd Corinthians 9:15. The message was delivered beautifully and to a crowd of thirty people.

After the service, we had our potluck meal. Mr. Bill had provided ham for everyone. I made hashed brown casserole and a pineapple cake. Miss Springer made desserts and corn and vegetable casserole. The Navajo ladies brought fry bread, tossed salad, potato salad and some dessert. As far as I could tell, everyone stayed for the meal and we all ate hearty! There were also plenty of leftovers. It was so good, Abby and Kelcy didn’t even eat their dessert!

Monday, December 8th

After last week, I think we were all a little nervous today, but all went well. Today, all the kids had to eat in their classrooms, because we had an event scheduled at the church during the lunch period. I spent a lot of time at the school cleaning and straightening.

The school has been collecting Campbell’s soup labels for several years and this year the teachers got to purchase supplies using the points. We have begun receiving the supplies and it has been like Christmas every day! We open the boxes, not sure of what is inside. There are lots of supplies for recess games and P.E. games. There are aquariums and basketballs and science kits. Thank you to all who have collected soup labels, it has really paid off for the school kids!

Today, the church was on loan to another minister who performed a funeral service there. Afterward, the families had a fellowship meal there.

Tuesday, December 9th

And for those of you who don’t think it gets cold in the desert, I am here to tell you, it does. All day Monday, a cold wind blew. This morning, we woke up to snow on the ground! It was very pretty and the girls were very excited. We wondered if there would be school, but alas it was not canceled. Most of the snow was gone by 10AM. It was nice while it lasted! It REALLY does snow in the desert. Who knew?

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

We had such a great day today! There is a place called AICM (American Indian Christian Missions) in Show Low, Arizona. There is Christian boarding school located there for the children from the Apache reservation. Today, three of their classes came to visit us here and brought gifts for the school children here. It was so much fun! It was great to meet the four lady missionaries who came with the group. They were a mixed group geographically. One was from North Carolina, one from Massachusetts, one was from Indiana and one from this area. The kids from Show Low got here about 10:30AM and stayed until 1:30PM. The Red Sands School provided a pizza lunch for the children and adults alike. After lunch, the kids played “tug ‘o war” (thanks to the new supplies from Campbell’s soup labels) and I confess that the Show Low team won! And they won soundly! I think Jerry will have to have the kids here do double the work in P.E. After the games they all came inside and the children from Show Low handed out gifts to the kids at Red Sands. All of the children were very well behaved and it went very well. All too soon, the Apache kids were on their way back home and the Red Sands kids were back to class work.

Next week: potluck at Dilkon, staff Christmas dinner, school Christmas program!